Ernst von Leyser

Ernst von Leyser (18 November 1889-23 September 1962) was a General der Infanterie of the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany.

Biography
Ernst von Leyser was born on 18 November 1889 in Steglitz, Berlin, in the Kingdom of Prussia in the German Empire (present-day Germany). Leyser joined the Reichswehr in 1909 as a Lieutenant and served in the German reserves during World War I. In 1935 he was called back to the German Army, the Wehrmacht, after the coup of Adolf Hitler to form Nazi Germany after having been transferred to the police to adhere to the Treaty of Versailles. He served as the commander of German reserves, and thus did not serve in the 1939 invasion of Poland that started World War II.

However, he took over the German 169th Infantry Regiment during the battle of France in 1940 and took over the German 269th Infantry Division during Operation Barbarossa. He laid siege to Leningrad until December of 1943, when he took over the German 15th Corps in Yugoslavia, Leyser fought against Yugoslav partisans in Croatia but he left on 20 July 1944, replaced by Gustav Fehn. Leyser served with the German 21st Corps in the Balkans until 28 April 1945, and on 8 May he was captured by the US Army. Fehn and Leyser's successor Hartwig von Ludwiger were both executed by the Yugoslavians for war crimes, and Leyser was imprisoned from 1948 to 1951.